Aradhana was a planted witness, claims Rathore’s lawyer

Former Haryana DGP S.P.S Rathore’s counsel on Wednesday told a local court hearing his plea challenging his conviction in the molestation case against him that Aradhana, the prime witness in the case, was a planted witness and the former DGP was a victim of the rivalry between two tennis associations of Panchkula.

Rathore’s counsel also submitted before the Additional District and Sessions Judge Gurbir Singh that Aradhana was not present when the incident allegedly took place and that she never visited the Haryana Lawn Tennis Association (HLTA) office.

That the victim’s friend Aradhana was a planted witness in the case was the main stress of Rathore’s lawyers during the third day of the day-to-day hearing in the case, the victim’s family lawyer Pankaj Bhardwaj told reporters outside the court declared out of bounds for the media.

Rathore’s lawyer wife Abha and their other lawyer N. D. Sharma pleaded before the court that the former DGP was a victim of rivalry between heads of two separate lawn tennis associations - Haryana Lawn Tennis Association (HLTA) and Haryana Tennis Association (HTA) based at Panchkula.

At that time HLTA was headed by Rathore, an IPS officer, whereas J. K. Duggal, an IAS officer was at the helm of affairs in HTA.

The other contention of Rathore’s counsel was that the CBI did not examine the relevant witness Paltoo (ball picker) and the then HLTA manager Kuldeep Singh, Mr. Bhardwaj said.

The former Haryana police chief’s counsel cited some court judgements while reading out the entire evidence in the court which is also hearing petitions of the CBI and the victim’s family seeking enhancement of Rathore’s six-month prison term in the case.